Instead of a battle of two all-star point guards on Sunday evening, Toronto basketball fans got a quarter of Kyle Lowry in an at times dreadful game the visiting Wizards won 107-96.

John Wall, who made the All-NBA third team last season, a year after Lowry did the same, didn’t suit up at all due to a shoulder injury, while Lowry lost his cool after playing 12 minutes and picked up a pair of technical fouls and an automatic ejection after arguing with an official following what he perceived to be a missed foul call. Lowry had left the building by the time the media entered the locker room and will explain his view on Monday.

There went Toronto’s supposed huge advantage at the point guard spot — though that hadn’t played out before Lowry’s dismissal anyway, with the Raptors shooting blanks and turning the ball over far too often throughout the first half. Lowry didn’t hit a field goal and notched only a single assist before his night ended early. After getting the kiss-off from the referee, Lowry planted a kiss on youngest son Kameron after exiting the court and heading to the tunnel.

DeMar DeRozan declined to risk a fine in discussing the Lowry incident, while head coach Dwane Casey defended Lowry, saying, “first off, if you’re a young official, walk away. You don’t stand there and debate with a player that’s frustrated, upset in that situation,” Casey said.

“I was surprised, players I’m sure have said worse to officials than what Kyle did … Kyle’s our engine, our leader. We need him, we’ve all got to understand in the situation, the moment, we’re all frustrated and keep our head.”

Jonas Valanciunas echoed those thoughts.

“He’s a really important player for us, he’s directing the show,” Valanciunas told Postmedia after the game … We need him.”

But this was by no means all on Lowry. The Raptors looked horrific for much of the evening, especially during the first half, but sparked to life in the second half through the strength of the young reserves, whittling a 19-point Wizards lead down to three.

However, the group that played so well was replaced by the starters (and Delon Wright subbing for Lowry) and a 12-2 Washington run put to rest any hope of a Raptors robbery on a night the visitors deserved to prevail.

The Raptors fell to 5-4, losing for the first time at home, while 5-4 Washington got back in the win column following a tough stretch.

Bradley Beal was the best player on the court, going off for 38 points, five rebounds and four assists. DeRozan had 26 in a so-so effort, Norman Powell had 19 and Fred VanVleet, Lucas Nogueira and Pascal Siakam had excellent efforts off of the bench, making a game of what looked to be a blowout early on.

The Raptors hit only five three-point attempts (20.8%) and missed 10 free throws.

SAW IT COMING

Casey had warned pre-game that the first home tilt following a long trip is historically a let-down game.

“Our starts have been horrendous, we talked about the travel situation, how tough it is to find energy and professionalism and playing with a purpose once you come back off a long road trip and evidently it didn’t sink in,” Casey said.

LOTS OF OPTIONS

Casey has a problem most coaches would love to have: Too many NBA-caliber rotation players and not enough minutes to go around.

“A lot of equal, talented guys that are equal skillset,” was how Casey put it before the game.

There’s gonna be nights where somebody’s just gonna get the short straw, which is unfortunate, because all the guys, OG (Anunoby), Pascal, all of those guys, (Jakob Poeltl), have been playing really, really well. But it’s just almost impossible —other than fighting altitude and getting extra bodies in there — to play that many people. Now you’ve got C.J. (Miles) coming back (into the lineup, making it even more difficult). It’s the people who are performing and playing who are going to determine those minutes,” Casey said.

Poeltl was the first centre off of the bench against Washington after Nogueira had been filling that role in recent games, but Casey went with the hot hand, Nogueira much of the way, before bringing starters Valanciunas and Serge Ibaka back, which didn’t go as planned.

With Nogueira and Siakam changing the game, they warranted a longer look. Siakam has played so well recently that as hard as it is, the staff must find a way to get him 20 minutes or so of action for as long as this keeps up.

Casey said he went back to the starters because the youngsters were winded and needed a break and because they were struggling to score, but added he might have to rethink that if things continue this way.

“Our starters have to be more consistent with their approach. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it … we have to find more minutes for the second unit if we can’t be consistent with our starters.”